Uconn

Auriemma: Catholic schools took the money and ran BY ROGER CLEAVELANDRepublican-American

Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma watches during the second half of his team's 97-25 victory over Oakland in an NCAA college basketball game in Hartford, Conn., Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Fred Beckham)

HARTFORD — The news that broke last week regarding the "Catholic 7" teams leaving the Big East certainly hit home at UConn with many people seeing it as a crippling blow for the Huskies' athletic program overall going forward.

It wasn't quite as devastating within the women's basketball program. The Huskies will have to find new teams to play, for sure, but it wasn't like they are going out and replacing epic rivals or even teams that had much of a chance to beat them occasionally.

Since the start of the 1993-94 season, the UConn women's basketball team has amassed a record of 151-4 against the seven Catholic schools that announced Saturday that they were leaving the Big East. Last season, St. John's beat the Huskies. Seton Hall beat UConn during the 1993-94 season, and twice in between those games Villanova beat them (both in 2003 and 2004).

"Everybody wants to live in a nostalgic world," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "What does Garrison Keillor say in Lake Woebegon? 'All the women are strong, the men are good looking and all the children are above average.' Everybody wants to live in that world where the nine original Big East schools live and play against each other forever."

He said the possibility of that started fading once football became a driving force in the league, fracturing the schools and forcing everyone to look out for themselves.

"You are either at the big boy table playing poker or you are not," Auriemma said. "I think the Catholic schools did a really good thing. They stayed at the table as long as they could make as much money as they could, and then when they saw that the money was running out, they decided, 'Let's go play somewhere else.' And had they voted appropriately for some of them in the last 10 years, we would not be in the situation we are in. They did what was best for them, just like a lot of Catholic schools do.

"And a lot of people used to always say the state schools are the big bad guys, and we certainly had our share of that in our conference. And at this point in time, they probably felt like this is the best time for us to make our move."

Auriemma said the move can't happen soon enough. While some people want to remain nostalgic and hang on to what they have for as long as they can, he's not among them.

"I hope they leave tomorrow, but they can't because we have to play out the schedule," Auriemma said. "But I hope as soon as the season is over they do and do what they need to do just like everybody else. Just like Syracuse. Just like West Virginia did. I think West Virginia did it the right way. 'I don't want to be in this conference any more. I am leaving. What do I owe you? I'm out of here.'"

No worries here: Auriemma can take such an approach to the Catholic schools, because in women's basketball it was UConn that lifted those teams to respectability and made the Big East what it is today.

In 1995 when the Huskies won their first national championship, the Big East received only two NCAA Tournament bids, one for UConn and one for Seton Hall. Once everyone started striving to catch the Huskies, things changed dramatically. Since 2007, the league has received at least seven tourney bids every year with a record nine in 2011.

"Our job here at Connecticut is to have the best basketball program in the country," Auriemma said. "Fifteen years ago whenever it was we played in Minneapolis at the Final Four, we were called the University of Connecticut, and we played in the Big Least Conference. That Connecticut was the only good school in the league and all the other conference schools were terrible. I think we may have gotten two teams in the NCAA tournament or something like that. Then 15 years later, we got nine and we were recognized as the best conference in the country. Well that is over. It's gone. So maybe it is time for us to build another conference, just like we built the Big East."

Independent schedule?: The idea of an independent schedule for the Huskies the way Notre Dame, Marquette and DePaul used to do, is far-fetched these days.

Auriemma said, however, that he wouldn't be totally against different programs within the same school joining different conferences to suit the strength of their sport if enough revenue could be generated. That way teams with regionalized talent could stay closer to home rather than shipping a track team, field hockey or a baseball team across country to play home-and-home series.

He pointed to the fact that UConn's men's hockey program has always been in another conference and will join Hockey East soon.

"I can see a scenario down the road maybe where football, men's basketball and women's basketball are all part of these megaconferences," Auriemma said. "I can see some schools saying, 'You know what? We have a real good baseball program and we don't want to travel three time zones to play baseball. Why don't we just play in a different league like hockey does that suits the best field hockey programs in the country. I don't know how many great soccer programs there are in the Big 12, men's or women's, or in the SEC for that matter. Or the Big Ten for that matter. But I do know the ACC and the Big East have tremendous soccer."

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